We’re so excited that Ellie Goulding is back! She chatted with Wendy Wild at the 103.5 KTU studios in New York City this week to talk about her new single “Easy Lover,” female empowerment, the environmental crisis, working with Big Sean and so much more.
ON BEING BACK WITH NEW MUSIC
“Easy Lover” is the first time Ellie Goulding is releasing new music in about 2 years. She says she got emotional recently at a wedding when someone approached her to say they heard her new track and loved it. “It's just so nice to have a song on the radio again,” she said. “I was worried that I was going to lose my identity here because I hadn't been here for so long and naturally people are going to forget.”
“I feel lucky to still be a popular artist, and my songs do so well. I’m so grateful I get to perform, and I get to have this incredible fanbase.”
ON WORKING WITH BIG SEAN
“I didn’t think this would be the song for [Big Sean], I thought he wouldn’t be into it! But he loved it,” she said. “He doesn’t [just] sit on top of the track, he always weaves his way into it. He understands the song and his words reflect that.”
(Fun fact: Big Sean sampled Ellie Goulding’s “Fighter Plane” for his 2011 track “High.”)
THE CONCEPT FOR THE “EASY LOVER” MUSIC VIDEO
When putting together the treatment for the “Easy Lover” music video, Ellie told creative director and stylist Nathan Klein that she wanted to avoid something “typical” and “cliché.”
“I just [wanted] it to be surreal and I want it to be almost like a video game,” she said. “It’s liberating and fun to play other characters and not have to be myself.”
THAT ”LIGHTS (SPED UP VERSION)” TREND ON TIKTOK
No one is cooler when their older songs start trending on Tiktok than Ellie Goulding. “Things are changing so much and suddenly my song ‘Lights’ is doing really well out of nowhere,” she added. A sped-up version of her song “Lights” went viral almost 12 years after its original release. “I feel like it’s so much better to be open-minded with this stuff,” she said about the social media app. “I genuinely enjoy TikTok. I genuinely enjoy the fact that it’s a lot of joy. It’s a lot of people dancing and having fun with their friends.”
When we talked about Kate Bush’s “Running Up The Hill” and how it’s going viral again after 30 years (thanks to Stranger Things), Ellie thinks it’s amazing that new generations are discovering music she loved growing up. “Maybe I [should] just make songs for the future,” she said with a laugh.
ELLIE’S NEW HEALTH AND WELLNESS BOOK
We’ve always known Ellie to be an athlete on the stage and off, so it made perfect sense when we learned that she was writing a wellness book.
The book is called “Fitter. Calmer. Stronger: A Mindful Approach to Exercise and Nutrition” and Ellie started writing it a few years ago while on tour.
“If you’re struggling a bit with motivation or mental health and you just want somewhere to start: with exercise, or just movement, or even with food – it’s got a little bit of everything in there.”
She also hinted that a follow-up book might be on the way.
“I feel like I need to do book Number 2 now that I’ve had a child because that changes everything.”
ON BEING KIND TO YOURSELF
Being a woman in a male-dominated industry is no simple feat, especially with being a new mother and balancing the expectations of being a female pop star. “
We’ve been made to feel like [there’s] a standard we have to keep to,” she said. “A lot of women have things like imposter syndrome because perhaps we have to work that little bit harder to be taken seriously still.”
Ellie says it’s so important to be gentle with yourself because she believes that your brain will “accept what you tell it.” “You really do have to keep being kind to yourself every day on a daily basis,”
ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS
We all know Ellie is a philanthropist and an advocate for the environment. She shared how passionate she was about artists using their platforms to address climate change. “Coldplay are doing an amazing job, I actually have so much respect for Chris [Martin]” she said as she talked about the band’s sustainability efforts with their tours.
“I would love, personally, if there were more artists doing the [same sustainability efforts]. I don’t think there's any pressure on an artist to stand for a certain cause. but I don't think it's like a partisan thing. It's something that affects all of us in the industry. It affects the entire planet. There’s no one that is untouched by climate change at this point. We’ve all seen the crazy weather. And then the fact that [the United States] have passed this huge climate bill, it gives us such hope and optimism. [But] we’re not steering away from fossil fuels quick enough; I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re just gonna keep seeing these crazy hot summers.”
“Look, we can all do better. It’s better to be a hypocrite than a cynic, so I would rather do as much as I can within my realm of what I do,” she continued. “Music is the most universal thing on the planet, and I think we have this untapped power to reach out to people, to influence people and inspire people. I hope that other artists follow suit.”
You can listen to “Easy Lover” and Ellie Goulding’s greatest hits on iHeartRadio:
You can also hear music from Ellie Goulding and your other favorite artists on 103.5 KTU: